Nobody of My Nobody
by Ultima Potato
Summary: He remembered watching islands being consumed by blighted darkness. He remembered promising a girl across a chasm that someday he would come back to her. He remembered kneeling in a sunbathed station plaza, tears in his eyes, as he cradled his friend's head in his arms, watching as she faded away into the sky...
1. prologue

**1. If you are looking for boy-to-boy action, get out.**

**2. If you are a hornball looking for something stimulating to read, get out.**

**3. I'm harrible at this, it's my first attempt. Feedback, regardless of approval or disapproval, is much appreciated.**

**I guess you could call this "my version" of kingdom hearts 3, since it picks up where DreamDropDistance left off, but I feel kind of reluctant to call it that because I've seen how often the idea is reused, and how casually they are dismissed as a result nowadays. For the time being, think not of this story as kingdom hearts 3, but something much more different.**

**p.s. the sora/kairi and romance tags were simply to gain publicity. ****I'm a attention-craving douche-bag, muahahaha.**

**(they WILL come out though.)**

* * *

Sadness.

She felt sadness.

It wasn't bad, though. It was cathartic. Like seeing a loved one off after a happy reunion.

She reached up and touched a gloved hand to the rusting black gate-

When had she put gloves on?

When had she come to this place?

She knew this place. It was...

what was it?

She was on the edge of remembering.

Focus, focus. Remember. What did I forget?

But the more she tried to grasp it, the cloudier it became, like a dream dwindling away, running into the maze of her memories, until it finally completely disappeared, leaving her perplexed, and for some reason, shattered.

There she was, aimless, meaningless, in a grassy clearing in front of a tall spiked gate guarding an ancient mansion, standing under a perpetual, looming, lusty gold-and-crimson cloudy sky.

And she kept standing there, not knowing who she was, uncertain of what to do, not even sure if she had been stripped of purpose or had had no purpose to begin with.

Remember, remember. What did I forget? What did I lose?

She gazed at the mansion's aged architecture, and her eye stopped.

A pale girl stood in one of the mansion's grimy windows.

No, there wasn't. There was only darkness beyond the pane.

But that only bothered her more, because the girl _should_ have been there, and...

She gasped and staggered on unfamiliar feet, bringing up an unfamiliar hand to her unfamiliar forehead to steady herself. It was all starting to rush back in a torrent. The thing she had tried to remember.

But this was too strong, it was all too much at once, and before long she screamed out loud in her unfamiliar voice, pleading for it to stop, but the torrent of memories was relentless.

She saw through a mirror a blond-haired boy with an uncertain expression. She saw islands being swallowed up in blighted darkness. She remembered reaching out to a girl across a gaping chasm, screaming her name, promising that she would find her one day.

She felt anguish, kneeling in a sunset-bathed station plaza, tears in her eyes, as she held... herself? in her arms, watching her fade away into the sky.

Too many memories. She was going to burst. Her mind fought through a flood of faces, worlds and emotions in a wild panic, terrified that she would drown in the torrent.

And in her hazed fear, she felt a solid name and seized it, clutching at it for her life lest she be swept away into the sea of memories. The name seemed to connect with everything, make all the sensations come together like puzzle pieces, like a **key **fitting into a **lock of memories.**

Funny how a few simple letters could make everything so cohesive.

One simple name.

**Sora.**

* * *

**whaddaya think?**


	2. Riku

**hoo-rah, chapter 1.**

**And now we return to Kairi and Riku in Yen Sid's tower (if you haven't seen the DreamDropDistance secret ending yet, Riku has brought along Kairi from destiny islands to train to be a keyblade bearer.)**

**btw, did you guess who the girl in the prologue was yet?**

**abtw, I've done some reading since, and i'm 80% sure that "smirk" is this community's favorite word.**

**aabtw, quick question: what on earth is sweatdropping?**

* * *

Skip, hop.

The sound of sneakers squeaking on marble tiles bounced along the twisting, physics-defying corridors of Master Yen Sid's tower.

It still gawked Riku that seemingly hundreds of corridors would fit into the narrow tower - yet they did, probably by some freak combination of Magnega and Graviga that only Yen Sid would understand.

He had long since given up on trying to create a mental map of the place; doing so had only gotten him hopelessly lost countless times, several of in which the Master himself had had to go fetch him.

He found it easier on the mind (and the heart) if he simply pretended he wasn't bending the laws of all physics and gravity just by walking these godforsaken halls. He felt like fighting Xemnas had been easier than finding his way around here.

So it slightly peeved him that Kairi, walking ahead of him with a bounce in her step, seemed to walk through the maze as if she had done it all her life, striding confidently and purposefully, leaving Riku to follow rather sheepishly in her wake.

The walk to the training rooms proceeded in silence. There was an awkward tension in the air; Riku had stopped trying to make conversation with Kairi, and she was doing the same, skipping to preoccupy herself.

It wasn't that he was glad to see her, but she was so strange and unfamiliar all of a sudden. She had grown taller and her face had changed since he'd last seen her from the other side of the door to darkness, and Riku sheepishly admitted to himself that she had also grown a great deal in the way of looks.

There had been that one day of joy when Sora and he and Kairi had all met at the restored islands, but there had hardly been time for rebonding; Sora and Riku had been called to again, leaving Kairi all alone on the islands for a second time._  
_

After finally seeing her again, he thought that he'd be bursting with questions and things he wanted to tell her, but instead was met with this awkward silence. She had become a stranger, an alien - not separated by distance, but by time. A daunting wall of differences had built itself between them over their separation; the roots that had grown deep, under the wall, still connected them by a thread of distant childhood, but breaking down the wall would take time.

Riku felt a small pulsating guilt that he tried to push down. The last he had properly seen her was in a coma brought on by his own hand, and now he couldn't even strike up a conversation with her.

Presently, they came to an abrupt stop at a menacing set of double doors that cut off the hallway neatly. Kairi stepped forward and tugged at the ornate curved handles to no avail. The doors gave no sign of giving, still as rock. Kairi, already committed to the task, tried again, and promptly fell backwards on her rear. She gasped a little and, scrambling clumsily to her feet, awkwardly stood staring at the door, not eager to risk embarrassing herself again.

The doors smugly stood there.

After the more fiery colors had left her face, Kairi turned helplessly to Riku for an explanation.

Mildly amused, Riku explained, "The doors have Gravira cast on them. Whenever somebody tries to open the doors, they get pushed back."

"Then how do we-"

Riku's keyblade materialized in his open hand as an answer, and he aimed it at the doors. A cloaked keyhole sparked into existence, and light leapt forward from the tip of the weapon, connecting with the lock.

With a deep rumble, the "double doors" slid upward into the ceiling.

Riku gave Kairi a look of finality and led her through.

As the "double doors" slid back down into place behind them, Riku saw the girl flinch; the room before them was eerily familiar. Unlike the deep blues of the corridors, pure white colored the training room's walls. Ornate marble tiles formed the floor, and marble pillars and ornaments were set into the walls.

He glanced sympathetically at Kairi, who tried to look bored, but she couldn't mask the fear dancing in her eyes.

"Master Yen Sid modeled this room after the Castle That Never Was," Riku explained. "He says it keeps us from forgetting." Forgetting what, he felt, didn't have to be spoken.

Kairi just stared at the empty-looking walls, the cold, uninviting atmosphere flowing around them. The room seemed to push them away.

Trying to distract her from the unpleasant memories he was sure were flashing before her, he reached into the torrent of darkness held at bay in the back of his mind, and focused, channeling it until his Keyblade materialized in his hand.

The Way to Dawn was as beautiful and horrible as ever; Riku tried not to look at his blade's twisted appearance. The glowing, glinting angel's wings on the tooth and part of the guard abruptly gave way to black twists and spikes.

The hybrid keyblade was a beacon of guilt and isolation for him; it gave him part of the light that was always just out of his reach, and taunted him of the darkness that he had once embraced. It was a painful reminder of his unbelonging, of his strange place, torn in the twilight. At least when he wielded Soul Eater, he had had a definite grasp on the darkness he belonged to.

He shook his head. No, don't think that way. That was an easy way back into the darkness.

Riku forced himself out of his train of thought and realized Kairi had taken the weapon gingerly in her hands, running her fingers over the savage blade and the angelic guard.

She finally spoke. "It's a lot different than Sora's."

Riku winced. It always came back to Sora, not him. He was the one inevitably connected to all things; Riku was simply another strand among dozens of bonds that Sora had maintained. And even though he knew that Kairi had every reason to choose Sora over Riku, it still hurt.

He tried to hide his grimace, but Kairi still saw it and quickly tried to recover from her mistake. "I mean, it's different from all the keyblades I've seen, ever." She had just made it worse. "I... I mean.." She became increasingly flustered, but Riku waved her off.

"You didn't offend me, don't worry. It's true, after all." He lied. "Now."

Way to The Dawn flashed gently out of existence as Riku crossed his arms faced Kairi squarely. "About your Keyblade."

* * *

**Yeah the chapter's short but I wanted to make clear that I wasn't one of those people that write one chapter and say they're going to do all this grand stuff but end up never doing anything else.**

**Feedback is appreciated :D**

**and also llamas :D**

**and also go watch the new fairy tail episode.**


	3. Kairi

**I've found my answer - sweatdropping is that anime sweatdrop thing. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEE**

**moving on. Still back to Riku and Kairi because I think the last chapter was too short to give them a proper bit.**

* * *

"Again."

Clang.

"Again."

Clang. A frustrated scream.

"Again." Riku's voice came cold and hard.

Kairi gripped the metal rod until her knuckles whitened. Without hesitation, she swung at him again with all the strength she had left, but her weapon met feebly with Riku's keyblade with a dull clang; he didn't even move from his spot.

"Ahh!" She dropped the rod as the full shock of the blow reached her end of the weapon. She stood glaring at the rod rolling on the tiles, massaging her numbed fingers, and then glared at Riku. He held his Keyblade passively, almost casually; his grip was loose and the blade sagged in his hand. Yet she couldn't even get him to take a step back.

Some "keyblade training" this was. This wasn't training, this was pointless self-humiliation. Why can't he just teach me?

"Again."

Furious, Kairi bent down, retrieved the rod. It hurt to wrap her fingers around it for the hundredth time, but she didn't care. Just teach me how to summon my goddamn Keyblade.

She took a swing at Riku, but she didn't wait for him to say "again" for another hit. She landed another blow, then another, ignoring the shock of the rod and her building rage. Soon she found herself screaming in fury, beating ceaselessly against Riku's blocks.

Have I ever been this angry before? she thought. A small part of her felt the unnaturalness of the anger, realized it didn't fit within herself. But her mind was already feverish with rage, and she did not relent.

Suddenly, in the midst of another swing, Riku shoved Kairi backward, roughly enough that she stumbled and landed hard on the tiles, and she realized she had crossed a line. Her anger quelled, but she still glared at the older boy, and started to pick up the rod again.

"_control yourself!_" He roared. Kairi shrank back and instinctively drew her knees up against her body. Riku's brilliant teal eyes glittered with cold disapproval.

_Dissaproval. _He's like a teacher now. She bit her lip and hugged her legs, and despite herself, she started crying. She immediately squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to soak the tears of frustration back up again before they spilled down her cheeks. That would make her look weak in front of her friend.

Riku roughly pulled her up and awkwardly wiped her tears away. Kairi ducked away, ashamed. It was childish of her to cry because of such a thing, but it was even more so to let somebody else comfort her like an infant. She bent down, wiping her tears where Riku would not see, and picked the worn rod up with numb hands.

When she looked back around, though, Riku was not there; it was Sora, on the other side of the long room. How had he gotten here? Riku had told her that Sora had gone away. As Kairi ran to greet him, she saw there was something wrong; he was on all fours, one hand on his keyblade, trying to fend off a mass of unmistakeable black figures.

The Heartless continued to appear, two for every one that Sora managed to destroy, until they were almost countless. Kairi saw him collapse amidst the swarming Shadows, and screamed.

"Sora!" She found her feet carrying her to his side, and she took a swing, hard as she could, at the Heartless that were consuming him, but instead of passing through the Shadows, the rod connected with something solid.

After a stunned moment, Sora and the heartless disappeared. In their place was Riku in a defensive stance, pushed back several meters, both hands gripping his keyblade to absorb Kairi's blow. She no longer held a metal rod in her hands; in its place was a beautiful, floral Keyblade, the same one that Riku had lent her at the Castle That Never Was.

"It was Sora, wasn't it." Riku walked up to her, his expression unreadable.

"What?" Kairi was still bewildered by what had happened. Where had Sora gone? And the heartless, they had been attacking him...

"This room can make you hallucinate," He replied. "The Master thought of it, as a way to bring out emotions to trigger a Keyblade summon. What did you see?"

"I saw Sora. But he was being attacked by Heartless, and he was dying, and I couldn't just stand there-"

"So Sora is the key to your Keyblade," Riku said. His voice sounded distant, his expression clouded. "Think of him, focus, and you'll summon your Keyblade."

Kairi blushed. She cared for Sora, but had she really been that bonded with him? Trying to distract herself from herself, she asked, "So a keyblade's tied to something important in the user? (epic blush)"

Riku nodded. "And it's different for every person. The Master says it can be anything from an emotion to a memory to a person, but it's always linked to the wielder. You picture it in your mind, and let everything else go blank." He turned around and walked stiffly towards the door. "Enough practice for today. Get some rest. Go explore the tower or something."

Another question found its way into Kairi's mind. "When you're summoning your Keyblade, what do you think of?" she called after Riku.

He stopped walking and Kairi saw his shoulders tense, like he was deciding whether to answer or not.

"The darkness." He gave her a tight smile and walked briskly through the door, leaving her alone in the training room.

* * *

**muahahahaha, moar short chapters. Please don't hold it against me, I find it easier not to procrastinate this way.**


	4. Ino

**holy shet, I almost forgot about this. This chapter's probably shorter than justin bieber's dong, but have mercy, hagwon's a bitch :( Because of that, next update I'm probably not even going to post a new chapter, I'm just going to add onto this one. So you won't be able to actually see that I updated it, but it'll be there.**

**eventually.**

**Also, thanks for teh reviews, I forgot to say that :D**

**Also, I'm gonna be in hagwon for quite a while so yeah :/ less chapters.**

**And now, back to the mysterious girl in the prologue...**

* * *

It was so sudden.

They came in a screaming torrent, the memories, a hurricane that plunged her mind into a feral panic.

She was drowning, dying inside a flood of remembrance. Her eyes snapped open. She tried to jerk up her body from the mattress and fling off the covers, clutch and gasp at the surface, but there was none, only the one in her mind, so she struggled on, trying to escape the terror that grasped her.

Faces and voices flashed around her in the redolent waters. Figures in black coats sitting about a huge white room. Men and women clad in radiant armor, locked in roaring battle. And she saw herself again in her own arms, holding her hand, crying to herself not to let go-

She doubled over and retched into the mattress, her body spasming. It was too much - her mind couldn't hold it all. She would die like this. The memories would kill her. Axel and Roxas would find her slumped in her own bile, dead because she hadn't been able to find the surface in time.

She had to get out. It hurt, a massive throbbing in her head, but she didn't feel it, she only knew it was there. Her body felt far away, like she was watching it through a monitor and trying to control it with a computer. She felt herself lurch to her feet, and she realized air was coming out of her lungs and her lips forming words. She was screaming something, a name. "Sora". She had heard it before, but she couldn't remember where. Her own memories had been swept up somewhere in the larger torrent.

Suddenly she felt a light breaking through the surface. She could see it, and now she knew where the surface was, now if she could just get to it, she would be safe, the memories couldn't get her there.

She felt her feet break into a run, past the door and out into the cold night air, sprinting to somewhere she didn't know. She fell back and let her body guide her to the light; her mind was deteriorating, falling comatose.

And just as she thought she would really die, she broke out into the light, and the memories fell away from their constricting positions in her mind. The flood receded, and the hurricane died down. She felt her pieces shift back together into their proper places. As normal worldly sensations returned, she realized she was doubled over and panting from a long sprint; she took a moment, caught her breath.

But when she looked up, she was no longer in Axel's run-down living room. It was a place she had seen once before in person and countless times in the memory torrents - she stood before the abandoned mansion.

* * *

**MERREH CHRISTMAS!**

**reviews are much appreciated.**


End file.
